What happened in December and January?

December 19, 2001

I'm back! We had a nice week celebrating Hanukkah. I was raised Jewish but my parents weren't strong believers in organized religion, so while I went to the temple Sunday school and did a year of Hebrew school when I was ten, our family didn't remain members of the synagogue. We always celebrated Hanukkah with the menorah and eating potato latkes, but didn't exchange presents then. Our holiday celebration is a bit eclectic, changing a bit each year until we get it *right* for our family. One thing I'd really like to do is adopt a family for the holidays or volunteer at a shelter and get my family involved- maybe next year when I don't have infants it will be an easier task.

When my first husband and I got married, we considered joining a Jewish congregation but as he wasn't Jewish it was a bit awkward. We ended up joining a Unitarian church, and I got very involved, spending time chairingthe Membership Committee, serving on the Board of Trustees for two terms, and have been its treasurer for the past six and a half years. That's my *part time* job, as I do the deposits, write the checks, do the payroll and IRS reporting, among other things. It's easy to get caught up in the business end of things at the church, but I appreciate the richness and spirituality I find there plus the loving community of people like myself on the *path*.

Switching gears...take my house, please! Seriously...in my first marriage, we were struggling financially and lived in apartments and often with my parents. I was pretty impressed when I started dating Matt and found out he owned his house. Well, the first time I walked into his place, let's just say that his late wife's decorating style and mine were worlds apart...I
apologize in advance if pool-hall green carpet and black lacquer furniture are your thing, but they aren't my style at all, and I've been working these
past few years on making this house *mine*. When we refinanced our house this past spring, I told Matt that we were definitely getting new carpet, and he hemmed and hawed for a while, saying that since we have kids and animals there wasn't any point in getting new carpet. Well, I'm sorry but I am NOT waiting twenty years to bag the green stuff and get this house feeling like mine. It's difficult moving into another woman's house, especially when that woman is deceased, and I had to explain that to Matt. Anyway, we also decided to add on some rooms to the house. We don't want to move since we're in a good location with good schools and a nice
neighborhood, so we're splitting off our vaulted living room and adding on two bedrooms and a bathroom. We've been interviewing contractors this past week and are starting to get the bids back. Unfortunately, it's going to cost a bit more than we had thought, so we're looking at getting a
home-equity loan.

Ever since my son Nicholas was born three months ago, I haven't been anywhere without him since he's nursing. Last week I actually got out of the house without any of the kids, and..confession time... it felt good! I could
actually get out of the car in millliseconds rather than ten minutes, didn't have to have my neck craned every which way to make sure no one gets run
over in the parking lot, and when I got into the market, I didn't have to worry about my other son Jeremiah eating his way through the store. Wow, this is what it used to be like before kids!

Wow, this entry is a lot longer than I thought! Hope you're all still there LOL. Anyway, I wish you all happy holidays and good cheer!

Rena:-)

January 2, 2002 Happy 2002 to everyone!

We had a nice holiday. On Christmas we went to my IL's house and had what had to be the most marginal holiday dinner ever. The only good thing about that meal was my pecan pies:-) Seriously, Matt and I were pretty disappointed with the food. After dinner, we went "up the hill." This is a time-honored tradition in Matt's family, to go see the Arab side of the family in Silver Lake just north of downtown LA. The house is packed with all manner of cousins, uncles, and aunts, and everyone is so nice and friendly. I still don't know who everyone is, but I figure I'm covered if I just call the ladies *auntie*, and of course the kids were a big hit, running around with their little mouths crammed with all sorts of Lebanese delicacies. Maybe it was just as well that the dinner was lousy...:-)

Very early the next morning, we packed up the van and the sleeping kiddos, and headed up Interstate 5 to Northern CA to visit my BIL and his family for a few days. Matt drove until around 7am, just as we passed into Central CA. Then he asked me to drive, and not five minutes after I took over, we hit a massive fogbank, and I couldn't even see in front of me, and was I scared! I just prayed that we wouldn't hit anyone, and remained on the paranoid side until it partially lifted about 15 minutes later, but that was one of the longer 15-minute intervals in my life, I tell ya! You gotta understand, I'm from Southern CA, and I'm spoiled!

I really enjoyed our visit. My BIL Joe and his wife Gina are very freespirited, into natural living and practice attachment parenting, so we have a lot in common. Also, it's kind of fun to *discuss* our MIL who is constantly on both our cases about AP and the family bed. But that's another story...Anyhow, we didn't do a whole lot while we were up there. The kids had a blast playing - Dominic's 9 and Olivia's Rebecca's age, and she just couldn't get enough of Nicholas. "Can I hold Nicholas?" was her mantra, and she really took to her little cousins. I got a big migraine on Friday, and Gina came to the rescue with her homeopathic remedies, and she drew me an aromatherapy bath with lavendar and candles surrounding me, and it was sheer heaven just sitting in the bath and relaxing (what a concept). On Saturday we went to West Sacramento to visit my friend John and meet his fiancee. John and I go way back to 1987, where we met when we worked at the same store, and we had a fling a couple of years later, but I was too stuck on Eric, who was to become my first DH, but we stayed friends. John's seen me through a lot of emotional strife, especially when Eric and I went through the "break up and make up" cycle for what seemed like forever, and I cried on his shoulder many a time before and after I married Eric, and when the marriage collapsed, I entertained notions about getting together with John, but he wisely put the brakes on that idea, saying that we worked out better as friends, and he was so right. His fiancee is the first woman I have seen him with in ages, and I was really hoping that she and I would hit it off, and she turned out to be great! Linda warmed to my kids instantly; hers are 18 and 16, so when she saw Nicholas, I could tell she was having some serious baby lust, but she got her fix that afternoon! We went to a Steve's Pizza and were there for almost 3 hours - we brought Dominic and Olivia with us, and all the kids busied themselves with video games, while the four of us chatted. I love the way Matt can talk to anyone about anything; I'm on the shy side so I appreciate his ease with people. I'm glad that John "approved" of him, because John's opinion counts for a lot with me, and if he hadn't liked Matt...

We spent Sunday driving home, and Monday I hit Target with my neighbor before going to a colleague of Matt's for New Years. I wasn't crazy about the idea of going out, but Matt was insistent, and when he gets "insistent" I know there's going to be an argument if I don't capitulate, but as it turned out, I had a really nice time, but could barely stay awake to ring in 2002. Getting older...:-)

New Year's Day was my dad's 75th birthday, and we gathered at my sister's house. I have a major vent about what happened that day with my brother and sister, but will save that for a future post.

Anyhow, hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I've really enjoyed reading all the thoughts and reflections on this site, and want to thank Paris and Megan for bringing it to us!

Cheers!

Rena